etnies Backyard Jam, Bournemouth, England
Note:
The following etnies BMX riders will be attending the first etnies Backyard Jam of the year in Bournemouth, England on April 2-4: Mike Escamilla, Taj Mihelich, Ruben Alcantara, Joe Rich, Dave Freimuth, Garrett Byrnes, Nate Wessel and John Heaton.

Mike Escamilla
has actually been riding a bunch lately. He was up at Woodward recently, enjoying the quality facilities they have to offer, as well as the outdoor dirt jumps. Mike has also been shooting photos at his good friend and sponsor Brian Castillo's Volume warehouse, as well as at the illegal Diamond Bar skatepark in Southern California. Mike is working on a major stunt that he will perform this coming Summer in conjunction with some other "alternative sports" athletes. He promises its going to be epic! Mike spent the remainder of last week up at Tahoe, shredding the slopes on his snowboard with good friend Heath Pinter of Mosh Bikes.

As usual, Taj Mihelich
has been working overtime at T1, getting the Joe Rich signature bike kits out to stores while Joe is in New Zealand. TajҒs wrist is feeling better, which is great considering a bunch of riders are in town visiting on the third Props Mega Tour, so hes actually been riding a bunch. T1 also hosted a Mega Tour BBQ at their ramp. Taj got in a
private session at the Skatepark of Austin with the UGP team on Sunday, and has also been getting ready for the SXSW music festival this week in Austin, putting on shows at the Ritz in conjunction with it.

IҒll let Ruben Alcantara
tell you what hes been up lately: "ItҒs been ten days already on the Fly Bikes tour in the Canary Islands. We've visited three islands so far and they are beautiful. The first two were quite small and there wasnt much to ride, so we enjoyed the nice views of volcanoes, mountains, forests and beaches. We've
been surfing a little, and found a couple fun spots to ride. Now we are going to the bigger islands, where there are more things to ride. These ten days have been amazing, cruising in a huge RV motor home, sleeping in the best spots, getting up with the nicest views, riding, surfing, hanging out, cooking and eating with my friends. Really nice and comfortable, like you can imagine. We've had a lot of good experiences and a few bad ones, like pushing the RV up some steep mountain in the middle of the night, and&nbsp; almost losing the brakes going downhill because they overheated. Another nice thing about the islands is that the weather changes a lot, depending where you are--even if the island's small. It can be
Winter at North end of an island or Summer at the South end. It's cool, because you can be all cold on a mountain wearing a rain jacket one minute, then drive thirty minutes and be in shorts on the beach. I hope to have more stories for you. Talk to you soon."--Ruben

Joe Rich
is in New Zealand for the next week or so. He'll be going to the first etnies Backyard Jam in Bournemouth, England on April 2-4. After returning home from the Toronto Metro Jam,

Josh Stricker
has been hanging out with friends in Philadelphia. The weather has been nice, so plenty of outdoor riding has been going down. Josh has been getting a little sick of New York and is thinking of moving back to Philly this summer. All of his riding friends are there and he just plain misses the scene. Josh and good friends Brian Wizmerski, Cory Martinez and Bob Scerbo are
planning a road trip from New York to Califrnia this coming May to get some filming done for various video projects and for fun.

Since he smashed his face, Dave Freimuth
has been remodeling his bathroom for the wife at home in Appleton, Wisconsin. Dave will be heading to Vancouver to hang out with the MacNeil crew for a team meeting, and to enjoy their new warehouse ramp (as long as his face can handle it).

Jason Enns
has been home in Vancouver. Being the homebody that he is, he built a fence to keep his dogs in the yard, but he quickly figured out that the fence was too low. So, Jason just recently installed an electric fence to give the dogs what he thought was a small "zap" of electricity. Being the adventurous type that he is, Jason put the collar on himself, tried out the fence and found out pretty quickly that the supposedly small zap was more like a serious JOLT! of electricity. At this point, it's safe to say the dogs wonҒt be getting out any more. Jason has been riding the Igloo warehouse ramps that he and good friend Dave Osato built with the help of Nate Wessel. The ramps are not completely done, but that hasnt stopped them from shredding the place. Jason came out to California to take pictures and shoot video with his sponsor and good friend Brian Castillo recently. He also appeared at the etnies Skatepark of Lake Forest BMX Grand Opening on Sunday, March 21.

Garrett Byrnes
had previously planned on going on the third Props Mega Tour in progress right now, but due to his wrist problems (as well as the drunks on the trip), he decided he should probably stay home. Garrett has been cruising around on his bike and getting kicked out of some local skateparks. He also got himself a new wetsuit to go surfing and has definitely been putting it to use. He just has to take it easy on his wrist. He has a doctorҒs appointment for it coming up this week.

After shredding at the Toronto Metro Jam a couple of weeks ago, Nate Wessel
went home via Section 8 Skatepark and the Woodward camp in Pennsylvania. He headed back up to Vancouver to finish up construction the eight-foot ramp in the MacNeil warehouse, because the
MacNeil guys are either too lazy or lack the knowledge to finish it themselves (ha-ha-ha!) Nate will also be finishing up the loose ends of the Igloo ramp for Dave Osato.

John Heaton
has been home in Toronto, enjoying some better weather after scoring a ninth place finish at the Toronto Metro Jam a couple of weeks ago. Hes been outside riding with his good friend from England and former etnies rider, Robin Fenlon. They've been riding street, as well as that awesome indoor park in Rochester, New York called X-Dreams (with the flat bottom built into the ramps). John also hung out with friends Dave Osato and Dustin Guenther this week. They all went out to see the new Starsky and Hutch movie. Besides all this fun stuff, John has been playing hockey, as usual.